The effect of biochar application and number of shoots on the growth of ratoon sorghum in vertisol soil
Abstract Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.)) is one of the potential commodities that can be developed to support food and energy diversification programs in Indonesia. It has the advantage that one of them can be ratoon. However, the yield of ratoon is lower than that of the main crop. The research on ratoon sorghum was carried out in vertisol soil. This aims of the study to determine the interaction between biochar application and number of shoots on the growth of ratoon sorghum in vertisol soil, to obtain the right dose of biochar and to get the appropriate number of shoots to increase the yield of ratoon sorghum. The study was arranged in a factorial manner using a Completely Randomized Block Design (CRBD). The treatment factors were biochar (without biochar, 2.5 tons/ha, 5 tons/ha and 7.5 tons/ha), and the number of shoots (1 shoot, 2 shoots, 3 shoots, and 4 shoots) at the 5% level. The results showed that there was no interaction between biochar treatment and the number of shoots on the variable of panicle sorghum, weight of fresh stover, and weight of dry stover. The results showed an interaction on the variable of plants height observation. Provides growth results that are not significantly different in the parameters of plant height, panicle length and panicle weight. Gives significantly different results on panicle length, weight of fresh stover, and weight of dry stover. The number of 1 shoots produced the highest growth for all observed variables.